The Mark of the Scorpion
by You'llNeverKnow1212
Summary: Percy Jackson is an assassin at the Institute. Working for the Titans, he knows that there is no way to defeat them, so it's useless to even try. But after his failing a mission starts a chain reaction of events, will he be forced to prove himself wrong?
1. Chapter 1

**Just another story idea that I had. This is just the first chapter so it's not long. Also, updates will be irregular.**

I was sitting on one of the cold metal benches in the Institute. Today was a rare rest day, so I was just sitting around not doing much. But even if I had wanted to do something, there wasn't really anything to do but train, and since I knew I could look forward to a long day of training tomorrow anyways, I wasn't too hot on that idea.

Hearing noises, I turned towards the door to the bunker to see some of the other guys enter. First came Ethan Nakamura, an asian guy with one eye. The other one was covered with a black eye patch. He never told anyone how he lost it. Anyways, I didn't like him too much; he wasn't exactly the friendliest guy here. Behind him came Chris. Chris was pretty nice, I didn't know him super well, but he was probably the closest thing to a friend. The last person was Octavian, who I really didn't like. He was annoying and weak. I had no idea how he managed to complete any missions, and I was sure that I had never seen him at training. And to top it off, he was power hungry and tried to order everyone around. I would almost suspect him of trying to overthrow the boss, but the idea was ridiculous. The boss was impossible to defeat, and he was the most powerful person in the world.

Our jobs didn't leave too much time for trivial things like making friends. I didn't exactly know everyone else's jobs, but I had always assumed they were like mine. I was used on what Luke called 'special missions', which were usually things like assassinations. It wasn't as cool as you might think, though. I wasn't exactly all climbing walls in stealth mode and then knifing someone. Instead they positioned me far away from the target and handed me a sniper rifle. The missions were pretty boring, to tell the truth. But you didn't refuse a mission.

As the guys filed into the room, I didn't so much as glance up or acknowledge their presence. For some reason, I was feeling bummed out today, even more than normal. To tell the truth I didn't exactly like my job. Not that I particularly cared for my targets, their deaths were trivial to me. Luke had been quick to train me to think of them not as fellow humans, but just as more obstacles obstructing the way for the boss that had to be eliminated. But sometimes my assassination just felt... _wrong._ As if I wasn't playing the part I was supposed to.

I quickly shook my useless thoughts away as I saw the outline of another figure approaching behind the three who had just entered. As he stepped forward, I saw that it was none other than Luke, who quickly scanned the room before his eyes stopped their gradual sweeping to rest on me.

Mentally, I cursed. Whenever Luke was here, it either meant that there was trouble or that someone had a mission. The alarms hadn't gone off, which led me to believe it was the latter. Even on the rare day off, I couldn't get a break.

"Percy, we've got another mission for you," stated Luke. I already knew that I wasn't going to get out of this, and you didn't refuse an order, but I opened my mouth to question him anyways. Before I could, however, Luke cut me off.

"It's a special case." Then he just turned around and left. Just the way he always was when he was on duty, blunt and to the point.

_It's a special case. _I couldn't even count how many times I'd heard those words. It meant that the mission was against our leader's greatest rivals, the Olympians. They tried all they could to overthrow our leadership, but the Titans never failed. They were fighting for a lost cause.

Normally, I would feel especially bitter after being singled out to take on a mission on a break day. But for some reason, I didn't. In fact, I found myself in the highest spirits I had been in for a long time.

It felt like I was doing what I had been destined to do.

Then I sighed, forced myself to stand up, and made my way over to my bunker to gear up and deploy.

* * *

Once I was ready, I climbed out the hatch on the roof of the Institute, making my way over to the helicopter that was waiting for me. I was going to be airdropped to my location, an abandoned warehouse a mile and a half from the remote village which I would train my sights on. Just as I thought, another boring mission.

My mission briefing had been simple: just eliminate the leader of a squad of Olympians. Our spies had gathered intel and figured out that they would be camping out in this village tonight, and had arrived just over an hour ago. I was pretty bored, seeing as how I always had to wait at least a couple hours for the target to get within range, so I could take them out without anyone noticing. Then, a voice crackled through my headset.

_"Be on the alert. The target should be passing through any second now."_

Hearing Luke's words, I crouched down and scanned the edge of the village for my target. Looking through the scope of my sniper, I saw them.

It was a girl with blonde hair, her face not easily visible. She looked to be pretty young, maybe around my age. I waited for a clear shot. Seeing her walk out from behind a building, I saw my chance. Steadily, I lined up the crosshair with her head and got ready to fire.

_10 seconds left before I lose my chance._

__The girl moved her head to the side, giving me a view of her face. She looked so young, so innocent. It was hard to imagine her as being a leader of a squad of the most evil group ever to walk the earth. Did she have friends, a family? Would someone miss her after her death?

_5 seconds._

What was I thinking? I couldn't feel sorry for the enemy. Dismissing my thoughts by attributing them to my ADHD, I focused on aiming at the girl's head again.

_3 seconds._

_2 seconds._

It was now or never. Steadying my hand, I squeezed the trigger, feeling uncharacteristic remorse as I did so. But just before I fired, something made me hesitate. It wasn't much of a pause, just a fraction of a second. But it was enough. The bullet went wide, and the girl had disappeared from view.

This being the first time I had ever missed a shot, I was unsure of what to do.

Luke's angry voice came in through my headset.

_"You blew it! Hurry up and get to the chopper before we decide to leave you behind!"_

I scrambled up to the helicopter which pulled me in before taking off. I didn't know what to feel. I felt frightened because I had missed a shot. I felt frightened because I didn't know how I would be punished. But most of all, I felt frightened because, beneath it all, I felt relieved that my shot had missed it's target.

As we neared the Institute, I frowned, knowing that there was going to be hell to pay for this. Clenching my jaw, I jumped out of the chopper and crawled down the hatch back into building.


	2. Chapter 2

I didn't really know what to expect since I had never really failed a mission before. I figured it must be something pretty bad, because I had seen the toughest people of the Institute return from their punishment shaken up and never the same again. Or worse yet, disappear never to be seen or heard from, like they had disappeared from the face of the earth.

So it came as somewhat of a surprise when there were no guards waiting to execute me or something. I shrugged and made my way over to the Bunker. I didn't feel like socializing after my failed mission. Not that I ever really felt like socializing.

_My failed mission._ The statement felt unfamiliar to me, and to tell the truth, the words left a bitter tase in my mouth. Not that it mattered to me if a mission was successful or not, I could care less. But I was asking myself, _why? _I had never hesitated to kill a target before, but there was just something about that girl - no, not the girl, the Olympians in general - that just felt so right. I shook the thought away from my mind. I couldn't afford to hesitate, it would only get me killed.

I cast another glance around me as I neared my destination. Still nobody around. It may seem paranoid of me, but it really was odd. I knew that my mission was not just another trivial task, it was important to the success of the Titans. Not that this failure would bring the downfall of the Titans, but it was sure to be a setback. And I knew that there was no chance of this going unpunished.

I halted outside the door to the Bunker. It was cold and grey, just like everything else here in the Institute. Two qualities that I had come to hate. Just as I reached my hand towards the door, someone pushed it open from the inside. Out stepped Ethan Nakamura, someone who I really didn't feel like dealing with at the moment.

"Jackson, back from your mission already?" he asked me.

I stared at him for a second, considering whether to answer or not. Finally, I decided I might as well.

"As a matter of fact, I am. Not that it's any of your business," I replied, wincing inwardly as I heard my voice, hoarse from lack of use. "Now if you'll excuse me." I made to push past him, but Ethan immediately moved to bar my way.

"I assume you were hiding from the enemy about a mile away, like always," came his reply, his tone cold. He trained his one eye at me, staring hard. "Honestly, I wonder what Luke sees in a coward like you. I wouldn't be surprised if you blew the mission." Here his eye gleamed for a second before returning to it's normal state of cold indifference.

Ethan had never exactly been nice to me, but he was never outright hostile. I was baffled at his actions for a second, but when he mentioned me blowing the mission, I knew that he knew what had happened. Usually I would have avoided a fight, but it stung that what he said was the truth. Plus I figured that I was already in trouble, so what difference did it make if I got in a fight or not?

I charged Ethan, tackling him to the ground. He had the edge over me in terms of hand to hand combat, with me specializing in picking the target away from a distance and all, but I had the element of surprise. Ethan's head slammed into the wall hard, disorienting him for a second. I got in a couple of good kicks to the ribs before he managed to get up. I had to hand it to him, he was pretty tough. I launched a punch at his blind side, but apparently he had trained on how to fight with only one eye, because it didn't really help much.

I was slowly backed up into the wall, and as I tried to avoid a kick to my knee, Ethan landed a punch to my head. I hit the floor, my vision blurry. I tried to get up, but Ethan climbed onto me, straddling me as he threw punch after punch into my face. I was too disoriented to fight back, and tried in vain to stop the volley of punches. Just when I thought that he would punch me to death, I felt Ethan get off of me and salute to someone in the corner.

"Sir," he said, respectfully.

"Leave us," came the reply. It was Luke. I heard Ethan exit the room, his footsteps fading as he turned the corner. Then a hand grabbed me roughly by the shoulders, hauling me to my feet. I staggered for a second before managing, with difficulty, to steady myself. "Follow me," came Luke's order. He didn't sound pleased.

I limped behind him, thinking of what would happen to me. Execution didn't really sound so bad at the moment. I had nothing to live for and nothing to look forward to but more boring missions. I would prefer death to having to roam the dreary hallways of the Institute for the rest of my life. I saw Luke turn into an unfamiliar hallway, one I had never seen before. I hesitated at the doorway, wondering what lay ahead of me.

Luke noticed and shouted, "Hurry up!" I hastened to obey. You didn't defy a superior's orders.

Together we walked for what seemed like an eternity but was probably closer to about ten minutes. Then we reached the end of the hallway, where there was a door, blank and gray just like the walls. But I could sense something in there, something important, beckoning to me. Luke saw where I was looking and his eyes widened. He looked nervous for a second, which shocked me. Luke's face had never been anything but a mask of indifference or anger. But then, in an instant, his face was back to normal, leaving me to almost thing I had imagined it. Almost.

"Come here," said Luke, standing next to a door on the opposite side of the hallway. "The Boss is waiting for you." Then, with an scrutinizing look, he turned around and was gone.

The Boss. The most feared and powerful man in the world, just beyond the door. For the first time in a long time, I felt something akin to fear. What could he want with me?

I was almost afraid to enter, but I guessed that Kronos wouldn't want to be kept waiting. So, steeling my nerves, I pushed the door open.

It swung open easily, revealing a dark room. It took a couple of seconds for my eyes to adjust, and when they did, I could make out the outline of a man. He was at least 7 feet tall, and had a huge scythe on his shoulder that looked like it had more uses than just reaping crops. He had an aura around him, an aura of pure evil. I took a subconscious step back.

"Perseus Jackson," came the deep voice, ringing with power and authority. "Come closer."

Though I really didn't want to, there was no way I couldn't comply with the man in front of me.

"I understand you've failed the Titans. There must be consequences, must there not?"

The question was obviously rhetorical, so I didn't reply, but I had a feeling that I couldn't have even if I had tried.

"You will be sold as a slave to the merchants tomorrow."

Sold as a slave? That was a fate worse than death. It was humiliating, and I knew that slaves were treated worse than animals. But I had no choice in the matter. I could already imagine myself being bound in chains and being dragged to market, being caged and poked and prodded. I vowed I wouldn't let that happen to me.

Then Kronos held out a dirty rag - a slave's cloth. "Wear this," he commanded. I had to force myself to take the rag, and glared at it as if that would make it disappear. Stiffly, I started to change. But I froze after I pulled off my shirt, hearing the shocked voice of Kronos.

"You!" he said, bearing down on me. I backed up frightened, wondering what I had done. I was sure that I was going to die, but instead Kronos just stared at my chest. More specifically, he was looking at the peculiar mark I had had ever since I could remember. I just assumed that it was a weird birthmark.

"The Mark of the Scorpion. How is it that you possess it?" he asked softly. After a few seconds of silence, he thundered, "TELL ME!"

"I- I don't know!" I stammered. Kronos just stood still for a moment, then turned his back on me.

"There is a change of plans!" he announced. "Tomorrow, you will be exiled to the Detention Center on a remote island. Now get out."

I lost no time in obeying him, and left hurriedly, still bewildered by the sudden turn of events.


End file.
